Management Team

C.K. Hong

CEO and co-founder, has over 25 years of management experience in the technology field. Before Netlist, he served as President of Infinilink, a DSL equipment manufacturer, and as executive vice president of Viking Components, Inc., a memory module manufacturer. Prior to this, he spent 15 years with LG Electronics and LG Semicon where he held various senior management positions in the U.S and in Korea. Mr. Hong holds an MS in Technology Management from Pepperdine University and a BS in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Gail Sasaki

VP and CFO, has over 30 years of experience in financial planning and strategic transactions in technology companies. She joined Netlist in 2006 and helped take the Company public. Prior to Netlist, Ms. Sasaki served as Senior VP of Finance and Treasurer at eMotion, Inc., previously a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak, CFO of MicroNet Technology, and worked for many years in public accounting with Ernst & Young. Ms. Sasaki holds a BA, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of California Los Angeles and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Christopher Lopes

VP Worldwide Sales and co-founder, has 28 years of sales management, applications and design experience with Toshiba America, Philips Semiconductor, LSI Logic and Xicor, and began his career as a systems design engineer at Lockheed Missiles & Space. Mr. Lopes has a BS in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Sacramento, and holds an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Dr. Hyun Lee

VP, CTO, has over 33 years of experience in transistor to system level design. Prior to joining Netlist 4 years ago, Dr. Lee was on the design teams of Lucent Technologies, AT&T Bell labs and Conexant Systems. He received his Ph.D in Information Theory from Lehigh University, and in addition holds an MSEE and BSEE from the University of Michigan. Dr. Lee is the holder of over 17 patents.

Jayesh Bhakta

VP Chief Module Architect and co-founder, has 24 years of electronic design experience at companies such as Hydo-Aire, Textron, Parker-Hannifin, SMT Products Corp. and Viking Components., Inc. Mr. Bhakta is a long-time member of JEDEC Board of Directors. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Certificate in Microprocessor & Software Engineering from University of California Los Angeles.

Harrison Jin

VP Suzhou Engineering, has 26 years of experience in engineering and quality management in the semiconductor industry. Before joining Netlist in 2007, he served as VP Engineering and R&D for Quadrant Components for 8 years. In this role, He also oversaw Quadrant's China manufacturing and Korea sales operations. Previously, he spent over 10 years with LG Semicon Co., Ltd. (currently Hynix Semiconductor Inc.) where he was Director of Quality. Mr. Jin received his BS in Physics from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.

Noel Whitley

VP Intellectual Property and Licensing, has over 18 years of experience developing and monetizing patent portfolios for technology companies. Before Netlist, Mr. Whitley served for over 8 years as VP of Intellectual Property at Broadcom, Inc., where he acted as the principal legal and business advisor to the company on matters related to patent portfolio development and monetization. Prior to Broadcom, he was in private practice with several leading law firms. Mr. Whitley holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University, an MSEE from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a JD from the University of Texas School of Law.